SERAPHITA

BY

HONORE DE BALZAC



Translated by
Katharine Prescott Wormeley



DEDICATION

To Madame Eveline de Hanska, nee Comtesse Rzewuska.

Madame,--Here is the work which you asked of me. I am happy, in
thus dedicating it, to offer you a proof of the respectful
affection you allow me to bear you. If I am reproached for
impotence in this attempt to draw from the depths of mysticism a
book which seeks to give, in the lucid transparency of our
beautiful language, the luminous poesy of the Orient, to you the
blame! Did you not command this struggle (resembling that of
Jacob) by telling me that the most imperfect sketch of this
Figure, dreamed of by you, as it has been by me since childhood,
would still be something to you?

Here, then, it is,--that something. Would that this book could
belong exclusively to noble spirits, preserved like yours from